New councilmen learn on job

They're cast within weeks of exhausting election wins into such “shallow” policy waters as how to spend $600 million on bond projects that will shape the city's future and what the entire city budget should look like next year.

It isn't quite fair. These are some of the toughest decisions they'll face, and they do so while they're still trying to hire a staff and memorize department heads. Their first impulse, after months of campaigning, might be to lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling — or, in the case of District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal, to throw together a little hip-hop mix.

But the group elected this spring has shown signs it might be up to the task. In deliberations on both the bond projects and the budget, they're asking good questions. Some of the returning incumbents are, too.

Last week, the council met at the Convention Center for an all-day budget workshop. These meetings offer a glimpse into the dynamic you always find, in a city manager-led government, between council members — the designated policymakers — and the folks on staff who carry out the policy.

The smart ones quickly learn that: 1) if they serve on the council for four full terms, they still won't understand government as well as City Manager Sheryl Sculley and her staff; and 2) that Sculley might well be the most skilled politician on the dais.

My favorite case in point unfolded in the spring of 2009, when former Councilwoman Lourdes Galvan was battling for her District 5 seat with David Medina. City revenues were shrinking and Sculley recommended delaying street projects — a traditional flashpoint in Galvan's West Side district.

Galvan protested, but Sculley stood her ground. The council could accept her proposal, she replied, or find other programs to cut — Animal Care Services, for example.

In other words, you can do what I'm telling you to do or kill more puppies and kittens.

“Sheryl's really good at the ‘Sophie's Choice' formulation,” said Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, a council member when Sculley was hired in 2005.

Galvan backed down and Medina defeated her. If Galvan had immersed herself in the budget, she might've had alternatives to suggest. I don't mean to pick on her, but that's the difference between being good at this and being ineffective — which brings me back to the newcomers.

At last week's budget session, Bernal eloquently framed the frustration of having city staffers draw up a budget based on a poll of the council about priorities — not specific enough to accurately represent their views, he said. And District 10 Councilman Carlton Soules pressed for further explanation about the overall dollar figure the council had been given.

Sculley's explanation didn't really clear things up. At one point she said, “It's not a dollar-for-dollar exercise, it's a revenue vs. proportionality.” And later: “This is about relativity, basically.”

“I'm still confused,” Soules confessed.

And well he should've been. During a break he told me he had “a lot of homework to do.” But he also said, “I don't have any problem saying ‘I don't understand that, you need to slow down.'”

To be fair to Sculley, she regularly meets with individual council members and rarely ignores their suggestions. That speaks to her political skill, too.

So this isn't about her, really. Rather, it's about whether council members can master complex issues quickly enough to effectively do what they were elected to do.